


Tale as Old as Time

by makbaes (gentlemindedlostgirl)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Parents, Bedtime Stories, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Hyuck and Chenle are their kids, I dont know how else to tag this its fluff, Kuntober, M/M, Married Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, not really a royalty au but theres a story about a prince and a knight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-30 00:14:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16275260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gentlemindedlostgirl/pseuds/makbaes
Summary: Kun doesn't have much energy to properly parent his sons, Donghyuck and Chenle. Thankfully for him, his husband Johnny tells them one hell of a bedtime story.





	Tale as Old as Time

**Author's Note:**

> This was a Kuntober prompt: Bedtime stories! It's 3K words of pure domestic fluff enjoy xoxo

“No ifs, ands, or buts, Chenle, it’s bedtime,” Kun said, gentle but firm as he carried the toddler into the bedroom where his older brother, Donghyuck, was already sitting cross-legged on the top bunk.” 

“Not tired,” Chenle said with a yawn that betrayed his true exhaustion. Kun sighed and placed his hands on his hips as he looked at the children. He loved them to death--wouldn’t have fought tooth and nail to adopt them if he hadn’t. But parenting wasn’t easy. He was tired, he’d had a shit day at work and all he wanted was the two hours respite he got between the kids falling asleep and when he went to bed for a strong drink and some quiet. 

Luckily for him, he had a good partner to help him out. 

Johnny came into the room and wrapped his arms around Kun’s waist from behind and rested his head against his husband’s. “Didn’t I tell you little monsters to go to bed an hour ago?” Johnny teased with the utmost affection. 

“ _ You  _ promised a story, Papa,” Donghyuck challenged from the top bunk. It was a mistake to ever make an empty promise when it came to the older of their children. Hyuck remembered every word said to him, and would make you eat them if you contradicted yourself. 

“I did, didn’t I?” Johnny chuckled and walked further into the room sitting down on one of the made-for-children chairs. It always made Chenle chuckle when he did that--he always liked watching his larger-than-life father trying to fit into their tiny things. “Dad’s better at stories than I am,” he hummed, looking over to his husband. 

Kun shook his head with a smile, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the doorframe. “Oh no, papa, you got yourself into this one. You’re gonna get yourself out.”

“Dad’s being  _ mean _ ,” Johnny said, sticking his tongue out at Kun and making their children laugh with delight. He hummed a while and fiddled with a rip in his jeans before perking up and looking to Kun with a bright smile. “Okay. I’ve got one.” He looked back to his children with a fond smile. “I’m gonna tell you the story of a very handsome prince who all but saved the life of a very tired knight.”

“Sounds boring,” Chenle countered, flopping onto his back. 

“It’s the best story,” Johnny argued back, ruffling his son’s hair. “It’s probably the most important story in the whole world.”

“Then  _ tell  _ it,” Donghyuck said from the top bunk, tossing down a stuffed duck at his dad’s head in an effort to speed things along. 

“Alright, alright,” Johnny laughed. He looked to Kun with warm eyes--the same warm eyes he had fallen for twelve years ago when they were younger and thought they had the whole world figured out and in the palms of their hands. “Once upon a time, there was a prince. The most handsome young prince in all of the Kingdom of Seoul. 

“Seoul’s not a Kingdom,” Chenle interrupted. “Even  _ I  _ know that.”

“Why don’tcha pretend for one night, you little stinker,” Johnny teased with a laugh to show he wasn’t actually frustrated with their child in the slightest. “You wanted a story, but I’ll never get done if you keep interrupting,” Johnny explained. 

“ _ Fine,”  _ Chenle groaned. 

“So  _ anyway,”  _ Johnny said. “Once upon a time, there was a Prince, and he was the most handsome man in all of the Kingdom of Seoul.”

“What was his name?” Hyuck interjected, suddenly interested in the tale. 

Johnny looked over to his husband with a smile. “Let’s call him Kun.”

Kun flushed from where he stood as he realized what Johnny was doing. He knew exactly the story his husband was going to tell, and the thought made his chest swell. 

“Papa, you’re cheating!” Hyuck complained. “That’s dad’s name! You can’t use dad’s name!”

“Who’s story is this anyway?” Johnny laughed. “I can use whatever names I like. Now  _ anyway.  _ There was Prince Kun of Seoul. He was a kind and caring Prince, and everyone who came to meet him fell a little bit in love with him. But his heart was not so easily taken. Many suitors came from all over the land to ask for his hand in marriage--from China, Thailand, Canada, as well as Korea. But none were successful.”

Kun chuckled from where he stood. His husband, for all of his good parts, was misremembering how popular he was in college. He’d had plenty of friends--hell, he and Johnny still spoke to all of them. But he hadn’t exactly been romantically sought after. He’d dated  _ maybe  _ two other guys before he’d landed with Johnny. And most days he wasn’t sure Sicheng even  _ counted.  _ But if Johnny wanted to romanticize it, that was fine by him. 

“One day, a Knight from a faraway land decided he was going to leave his home and travel to Seoul to start anew. And as luck would have it, he found work in the Qian family castle.”

Really, Johnny had decided to do his masters in Seoul at the same university where Kun was finishing his senior year. 

“Was the Knight’s name Johnny?” Hyuck teased with an eyeroll. 

Johnny feigned a look of surprise and awe. “Well gosh, kiddo! It sure was! How’d you guess? But as I was saying. The Knight found work in the Qian family castle, where he thought he would be very happy. But in order to get to the castle, he had to trek through a dangerous forest in the dead of night. And the poor Knight, as good as he was at fighting and other Knightly duties, he was a terrible navigator. And he got lost in the woods, which terrified the usually brave Knight. For he had heard stories of creatures that feasted on human flesh. He thought for certain he was a goner, that he would die before he even made it to Qian castle.”

“What happened then?” Chelne asked, his eyes wide with wonder as he looked up to his father. 

“He had a savior,” Johnny said with a smile. “The Knight was extremely lucky, because on that particular night, the Prince had decided to take a ride through the woods on his horse. Despite the warnings of many, the Prince had no fear of the woods at all. He happened upon the Knight, and, when he learned that he was to come to his own castle, guided him to safety.

In reality, the two  found each other in the university library--Johnny got himself lost in the stacks and Kun had to help him find his way out. Johnny had admitted that the stacks made him nervous--he didn’t like the way the lights turned on and off as you moved through the books. He had said that it made him feel like he was in the middle of a horror film he wasn’t meant to survive. Kun had chuckled softly, endeared by the gentle giant walking with him through the shelves of books. When Johnny asked him how he could be so calm in this place, Kun replied that he was a history student, and that meant the library stacks were practically a second home to him. How could a person be afraid of a place they spent so much of their time?

“Now, mind you, while the Knight knew he was no longer doomed to die in the forest, after meeting the Prince, he knew he was doomed in another way.”

“What do you mean?” Donghuck asked, hugging one of his plushies closer to himself. 

“Well you see,” Johnny explained, “Sir Johnny knew that he wasn’t going to die. But when he met the Prince, and saw just how lovely he was, and how kind he was, and how smart he was, Sir Johnny became another one of the Prince’s victims. He was one of the long list of people who fell very in love with him even after just meeting. And Sir Johnny had a feeling that he was going to feel that way for a long time.”

“Gross!” Chenle chidded, faking a gag for good measure. 

“I can’t wait until you fall in love someday so I can remind you of that, Lele,” Kun interjected with a smile. 

“Anyway. Prince Kun brought Sir Johnny to his quarters in the castle. And when he left, Sir Johnny was very sad. Because the castle was so large, and even though they both resided in the same place, Sir Johnny didn’t think he would ever see the Prince again. And even if he did, he had no reason to think the Prince would ever love him. Why would he? He was the Prince, and Sir John was but a lowly Knight. Surely, the Knight figured, the Prince  _ must  _ have some other nobleman hoping for his hand.”

Kun had walked Johnny back to his place--a section of apartments reserved for grad students. Kun was living in the complex nearby for undergrads. They hadn’t thought to exchange phone numbers or anything, and Kun remembered the instant regret in that the second Johnny had closed the door. Because as infatuated with him as Johnny had been, Kun had been equally infatuated in reverse. 

“I think the Knight thought too highly of the Prince,” Kun said, coming into the room to sit down on the floor next to his husband. “I think the Prince probably felt the same way. I bet he wondered what a brave Knight would want to do with a Prince who never really lifted a finger in his life.”

“Then the Prince would be underestimating how hard he studied,” Johnny said. “Because the Knight remembers countless nights of walking past the Prince’s study in the late hours laboring over a book. Trying to learn everything he could.”

“So the Knight found the prince again?” Chenle asked, eyes wide and a grin on his face.

“‘Course they did, dummie, they’re  _ dads,”  _ Hyuck teased from his bunk and earning a stern look from his parents. 

“Donghyuck, don’t call your brother names,” Kun scolded gently. “Apologize.”

“Sorry,” Hyuck mumbled, though he didn’t sound particularly apologetic. “So what happened? How’d they find each other?”

“Well,” Johnny continued. “The Knight remembered that the Prince had no fear of the forest and spent a lot of time there. So he thought his best bet would be to go into the forest every night to try and find him, even though it scared him. But weeks went by and he didn’t see him again. The knight was just about ready to give up and resign himself to a broken heart.” He smiled as he looked over to Kun. “But then, one of the Knight’s good friends, a nobleman named Yuta invited Sir John to a banquet. And who, to his surprise, was there?”

“The Prince?” Chenle asked helpfully.

“That’s right,” Johnny grinned. 

Yuta hadn’t known about Kun and Johnny’s debacle in the library--Kun hadn’t thought to tell him about the beautiful stranger, and it seemed Johnny hadn’t been either. The “banquet” in question was less a royal ordeal and more a bad college party--far too loud, with far too much alcohol, and it was a miracle that the two had been sober enough to actually have a coherent conversation and remember it the next day. 

Johnny  _ had  _ been drunk enough, however, to mention to Kun that he had been searching for him since the day they met. Kun, for his part, had been drunk enough to admit that he’d been missing him ever since. 

“Well what happened then?” Hyuck asked. 

“The Knight asked the Prince to dance at the banquet,” Kun smiled, remembering fondly how Johnny had pulled Kun into the makeshift dance floor that was really more of a thinly-veiled way for drunk and horny students to grind on each other in public, but Johnny had been more than polite, keeping his hands to himself until Kun insisted otherwise. 

“Stop jacking my story,” Johnny teased, giving his husband a nudge with his elbow. “But yes. The Knight and the Prince spent that whole banquet together, much to the annoyance of their friends. And they vowed that they would never get separated like that again.”

“And did they?” Chenle asked. 

“No,” Kun smiled. “They wrote long letters to each other every day that they couldn’t see each other, and spent every moment that they could by each other’s side. They needed each other after that. They couldn’t stand to be apart. The Prince fell absolutely in love with the Knight.”

“Gross,” Chenle interjected. 

“Papa,” Donghyuck said, leaning over the banister of his bed. “You said the Knight was tired and needed saving. Why?”

“Ah, good catch, Hyuckie,” Johnny said with a grin. “See, the Knight enjoyed his duties. And he worked hard at them. But that meant that sometimes he forgot to take a break. There had been many nights before that Sir John went without sleeping so that he might get more done. And more days than that where he forgot to eat, or ate poorly, because it was convenient. So Sir John had been at near the end of his rope.”

“The Prince wasn’t going to have any of that,” Kun smiled. “When he saw the way the Knight was living, he...maybe took his powers as Prince a little too far and ordered the Knight to take care of himself better. With the Prince’s help, of course.”

“A silly decree, but it worked,” Johnny laughed. “The Knight didn’t care much about himself. It didn’t matter to him if he was living well for his own sake. But he would have done anything for the Prince. So he lived well to make him happy.”

“That’s dumb,” Donghyuck said. “The Knight should have been okay for  _ himself.”  _

“You’re right,” Johnny said as he looked up at his son. “He should have. And through loving the Prince, he learned that it was okay to love himself too. And he’d learn to take care of himself for his own sake. But the Prince was a big part of that.”

“What happened then?” Chenle asked. “Did they get married then?”

“Not for a long time, actually,” Kun smiled. “The Prince waited a long time for the Knight to ask him out on a date. But he never did it. So after months of sighing and hoping it might happen, the Prince decided to ask the Knight himself.”

“Sir John didn’t think he was worthy of the Prince’s affections,” Johnny explained. “So even though there was nothing he wanted more than to show the Prince he loved him, he couldn’t do it.”

It had been frustrating for Kun, to see how much he cared for Johnny, and how much Johnny clearly cared for him in return. Kun had never been the one to make the first move, but Johnny had forced his hand. And he was glad that he had asked him out for dinner that night. Because it had brought them here. And Kun didn’t like to think about how life would have worked out if he hadn’t. 

“Well the Prince thought he was  _ plenty  _ worthy. So he prepared a picnic for him, and they shared it under the stars while they got to know each other. They sat there and talked for so many hours that the sun started to rise, and they didn’t even notice. And it didn’t matter, because they were together.”

Their first date had been to the on-campus sushi place they both liked. They stayed there talking until the annoyed student workers kicked them out close to closing. After that, they sat out on the quad until they could barely keep their eyes open any longer and sleep demanded they part. But Kun figured he was allowed his own embellishments to the tale that Johnny had begun to weave. 

“The Prince was the biggest gentleman Sir John had ever met,” Johnny explained. “Which was unfortunate for Sir John, because Knights are supposed to be the  _ most  _ chivalrous and gentlemanly. Prince Kun walked him back to his quarters, hand in hand. And before they separated for the night, the Prince Kun left the Knight with a parting gift: a kiss.”

“Like this,” Kun hummed and brought his lips to his husband and smiled as the man giggled into it when their children groaned and false gagged. 

“Don’t be gross and just finish the story,” Donghyuck said, curling himself under the blankets. Exhaustion was starting to weigh heavy on the children and Kun knew they wouldn’t be able to stay up much longer. Chenle was already starting to lose the fight in keeping his eyes open. 

“The rest is history,” Johnny said with a smile. “The Prince and the Knight started to court each other. And five years after they met, they married. And about five years after  _ that,  _ they brought home their first beautiful son, and the next year they would bring home another.”

“That’s us!” Chenle chimed with a grin.

“And the Prince, the Knight, and their wonderful children lived happily ever after. The end,” Johnny finished with a smile. 

“Dad still tells better stories,” Donghyuck murmured as he snuggled a plushie closer to him and settled into the blanket. 

“ _ I  _ thought it was an incredible story,” Kun praised with a warm smile. “Papa was right, it’s the most important story that exists.”

“I should really write it down,” Johnny mused as he stood up from the tiny chair he had been sat in the whole time. “Alright, stinkers, it’s  _ really  _ time for bed now.” Johnny pressed kisses to each of his son’s foreheads, Kun followed suit. “Good night, kiddos.”

“Night, dads,” the two said in vague unison. 

“We love you,” Kun said softly with a smile. 

The parents shut the door to their children’s bedroom gently, hoping not to disturb the way they were beginning to doze. Once they were safe, Johnny curled himself around his husband and held him close. 

“You’re still my prince, you know,” he said. 

Kun just smiled and kissed him. “And you’re my Knight in shining armor,” he supplied. “We should sleep too. That story tired me out,” he said as he took Johnny by the hand and dragged them back to their bedroom. 

Their kids might have felt one way about the storytelling ability of their parents, but Kun didn’t think he could have told it any better if he wanted to. 


End file.
